Gimmicks. Experiments. Adventures. On or off the football field, tricks are worth trying… as long as they’re used selectively.
That’s what NBC Sports seems to be doing this Saturday, when Notre Dame hosts Northwestern on NBC at 3:30 Eastern.
The Peacock is taking Mike Mayock out of the color commentary booth and putting Doug Flutie next to Dan Hicks for this Saturday’s broadcast of Notre Dame Football. Mayock will move to the field in a sideline analyst role. Should this move lead viewers or sports television consumers to raise their eyebrows? In a word, no, it should not.
What stands out about this move is not the gimmicky component, but the timing of it.
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Our story of Notre Dame-Northwestern begins not with the Fighting Irish, but with their opponent on Nov. 15 in South Bend.
Last week’s game between Northwestern and Michigan was… something. It actually created a sensation on Twitter for nearly 30 real-time minutes, believe it or not.
The Wildcats and the Wolverines slopped around in Evanston. Student Section associate editor and native Michigander Bart Doan offered this entirely accurate perspective on the contest in the second quarter:
Michigan-Northwestern thus far has basically been like watching two people trying to find the John at 2 am in the dark. -B
— The Comeback NCAA (@TheComebackNCAA) November 8, 2014
This was “1983 Oregon State-Oregon” bad. The 1983 Civil War was so awful, it ended in a 0-0 tie, earning the name “The Toilet Bowl.” You can’t get any worse than that, but Michigan and Northwestern tried very hard to approximate that (uhhh…) standard of quality.
There was, in short, plenty of comedy to be found in Michigan-Northwestern. Even the partisans of each team had to join in the fun, slathering on the snark and self-loathing. (Northwestern fans are, of course, more used to this than Michigan fans, but Michigan followers such as Bart have gotten used to the process under Brady Hoke.)
As funny as this game was, though, with the score being tied at halftime, something then happened which made the occasion even more of a “laugher,” despite the score being tied:
Michigan 0, Northwestern 0, otherwise known as #M00N (noticed by @MGoShoe) http://t.co/PhONUJtQxk pic.twitter.com/4MiPw0mrWD
— SB Nation (@SBNation) November 8, 2014
Hashtag #M00N, a legitimate Twitter hyperlink with zeroes and not Os, became a thing.
Even the Michigan bloggers wanted this to happen.
TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT OF #M00N
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) November 8, 2014
Alas, the Wolverines had the nerve to break up the scoreless tie in the third quarter:
that's no #M00N : /
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) November 8, 2014
Three days later, the event had still left an impression upon the minds of some of the souls who watched the whole thing from start to finish:
https://twitter.com/JohnsBenjamin/status/532200421641961472
The game was so bad that Northwestern’s game-ending two-point try — which mercifully ensured that overtime would not unfold — was met with a chorus of cheers and torrents of gratitude from the Twitter masses.
Of course, though, the two-point play unfolded like this — it HAD to unfold like this. Why? Because NORTHWESTERN, that’s why:
It was the perfectly imperfect ending to a perfectly imperfect game, a contest that was so bad it was good.
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There’s an obvious point to be made on the heels of Saturday’s “half-#M00N” (it would have been a full #M00N had it lasted all four quarters, of course): With Northwestern being Notre Dame’s opponent, this game owned little marquee value to begin with. Before the season, Northwestern could have turned this into a big game by performing well, but with the Wildcats trending downward, they didn’t do their part. However, with Notre Dame then losing to Arizona State and bowing out of the College Football Playoff conversation for good, there’s very little NBC can cling to in terms of promoting this game. It’s not sexy from either side of the matchup.
That, in short, is why this move — arousing some curiosity about how Flutie will work in the booth with Hicks — makes so much sense. It’s the kind of move which will at least draw some attention to NBC’s product and give casual viewers — especially those who live in the Midwest and won’t care to watch Mississippi State-Alabama in the 3:30 window on CBS — a reason to check out the broadcast.
It could be that this move was planned in advance. In fact, it surely didn’t come about without some consultation and conversation well before the release by NBC Sports Group. Nevertheless, in light of everything that happened last weekend in college football — the diminishment of Northwestern back to (temporary) status as a laughingstock and the elimination of Notre Dame from the playoff race — why not try a gimmick this week?
If there was one time for NBC to run a trick play during this season of Notre Dame Football, why not this week? This is a smart move… one that should not be viewed as an indicator of future plans or strategies for the network.
The next time NBC shoots for the #M00N on a Notre Dame broadcast, it hopes to have a game with College Football Playoff implications, be it in 2015 or beyond.
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